China’s rise in biotechnology is no longer a distant possibility — it’s here. Last year, Chinese firms accounted for over a third of all Big Pharma acquisitions globally. These companies offer something America’s bloated drug development ecosystem increasingly struggles to deliver: speed. That makes them a low-cost biopharma disruptor, and it should be a wake-up call.
The U.S. still leads in basic science and biotech innovation, but it is dragging a regulatory and operational anchor behind it. Eroom’s Law — Moore’s Law spelled backward — was coined by researcher Jack Scannell to describe the stubborn decline in R&D efficiency in pharma. It takes longer and costs more to get less.
